J. Orville Lindstrom, University Business Manager, told the Emerald Monday that though the campus post office lease expires April 17, 1962, the University is willing to extend the lease to June if necessary.
Lindstrom said the University Campus Planning committee had recommended that the lease not be renewed because “We hope the post office will locate on the edge of campus, thus cutting the amount of traffic through the heart of the University; and the Student Union needs the space for SU activities.”
The post office has served all residents east of Ferry Street — some 19,954 students and Eugene citizens — since the Erb Memorial SU was built in 1950. Since that time, the Post Office lease has been renewed annually.
THe Post Office Department has requested that the Eugene City Planning Commission rezone an area between 13th and 15th streets on Villard so that a post office could be constructed. This site would better serve the 5,000 students expected to live in that area in the future. The Commission has denied the request, but the City Council and the Commission are still studying the possibilities.
Lindstrom expressed the hope that if a branch post office could not be constructed at the edge of campus, that a post office serving only students and faculty be constructed in the SU. Student Union President Si Ellingson was not available for comment on this proposal.
The Campus Planning Committee, headed by Lindstrom, is studying the possibility of locating such an office in the SU.
Above all, Lindstrom asserted, “We want to cooperate with the post office as much as possible.”